One card is skyrocketing in popularity as the post-Boomsday meta begins to stabilise. Giggling Inventor is the new 5 mana taunt staple. With two Annoy-o-trons by her side, she represents a huge roadblock for any minions. At the same time, she’s great sticky board presence and ripe for buffs. Her strengths are becoming clear, and already she’s the most popular card in Hearthstone. According to HSReplay.net, she’s in about 1/3 of all decks and rising. But why has this inventor and her irritating robotic companions become so popular? And can anything stop the swarm of Annoy-o-trons?
Expect to see (and hear) a lot from her
Many taunts in one body is usually powerful
Hearthstone has seen the power of sticky taunts spread across multiple bodies. Spreading Plague, Voidlord, Sludge Belcher and others are powerful because their taunt is multiplied through many hard-to-remove bodies. Giggling Inventor expresses this idea by having two separate sticky, shielded taunt targets to punch through. Assuming no AOE effects, it takes four separate sources of damage in order to break through. This provides a huge roadblock to minions and weapons alike.
As such, Giggling Inventor has a key role in plenty of control and combo decks. Her ability to shut down boards for multiple turns is great for holding on when you’ve lost the board. Whether it’s stalling for a combo piece, waiting for the opponent to over-extend into a clear, or stabilising a won board, late-game decks get great usage out of Giggling. But it’s not just late-game decks that like it.
Wargear is great on divine shields
Giggling can have a great usage in aggro decks. From a control players perspective, it’s easy to look at aggro decks as purely aggressive. But all decks need balance, and the aggro mirror is a key consideration. Being able to protect your minions and life total while you can go face is a key advantage of Giggling.
More than that, Giggling’s attributes are great for certain strategies. Divine Shielded Mechs are great for buffs from Wargear, and having three sticky bodies are good news for buffs in general. But most importantly, she’s great at protecting your face-damage dealers. And if worst comes to worst, 4 total attack isn’t too bad for 5 mana.
A 3 mana 9/9 ain’t bad
Luckily, there are a number of powerful ways to counter Giggling inventor. One of the most prevalent is available to all Druids: Spreading Plague. Three low attack minions that are all vulnerable to 1 damage is horrible against Plague, that conveniently comes down the turn after.
But there is hope for non-druids. Mossy Horror is a great multi-purpose clear for low-attack minions, that completely wipes Giggling off the board. It can also provide a nice counter to Spreading Plague, and activate your Eggs in Deathrattle decks.
However, Mossy Horror is too slow (or too even) for many decks. Luckily, there is another option. Blood Knight becomes an eye-watering 9/9 from a single Giggling, which is backbreaking for many decks.
With Giggling’s power level and popularity rising fast, it’s likely to be worth running one or more of these.
Images courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment via Hearthstone.gamepedia.com.
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